Who am I? In a nutshell, I'm a 35-year-old assistant professor in the Psychology Department at Western Michigan University who likes to teach, write, draw, think, ponder, groove, play, dance, explore, and develop random allergies to strange things (including, but not limited to, cats, stamp glue, fruit skin, mosquito bites, rats, dust, and bullcrap). To get out of this damn nutshell, click on one of the links below (or to the right).
I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan at a very young age. My family lived there for a short time before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada to become showgirls. Near the end of my kindergartern year, we moved to Kelso, Washington so that I could attend the third school of my brief public education career and establish a pattern of shy, anti-social, pants-wetting behavior that haunts me to this very day.
We lived in Kelso until Mt. Saint Helens erupted across the street and seriously freaked out my mother, who decided we should return to our roots. So by 2nd grade, I found myself freezing my wet pants off in Bedford and then Delton, Michigan. Toward the end of my 3rd grade year or so, my mother decided that our roots were way too freaking cold, and we moved back to Las Vegas. We remained in Vegas until I graduated from Chaparral High School in 1991.
I began college at the University of Nevada, Reno in the fall of 1991. A bunch of stuff happened there. After graduating with my degree in psychology in 1996, I suffered some sort of head trauma that caused me to believe that I would like to live in West Virginia and enrolled in West Virginia University's doctoral program in behavioral psychology. That lasted about a year, and then I spent a year in Seattle working as an instructional designer before returning to the University of Nevada for graduate school in 1998. I left Nevada's doctoral program in behavioral psychology after completing my master's degree in in 2000. Ever the glutton for punishment, I then decided to go for the grad school hat trick and enrolled in my third doctoral program in August 2000. In December 2004 I once again returned to my alarmingly cold roots by moving to Kalamazoo, MI to begin a faculty position in the Psychology Department at Western Michigan University. And yesterday I had a burrito for lunch.
I'm currently a rather boring academic type, working as an assistant professor in the Psychology Department at Western Michigan University. Most of my time is spent doing silly things like teaching, researching, writing, thinking, committeeing, pondering, carousing, and whatnot. Especially whatnot.
I have friends. Honest. Here are a few who have a somewhat prominent web presence:
Most of the rest of my friends just have silly little MySpace pages, which can be found on my MySpace page.
I come from a large family, with 5 older brothers and sisters. Many of them are considerably older than me, and are kind of scattered throughout the United States. My mama now lives in Georgia with my sisters. She is an amazing woman, having managed to raise 6 of us maniacs despite the antics of our creepy, no-good father and a severe lack of funds. I love her dearly and respect her greatly.
I recently married a delightful woman named Stephanie. Some day we may acquire a puppy and call it our very own.
Below, in no particular order and for no particular reason, you will find a list of isms with which I identify. Neat.
My Fabulously Asinine Questions
How are you?
Did you really play for the Oakland A's?
Are you really some sort of hot model with killer abs?
Are you really some sort of boring 40-something systems administrator?
Are you really a member of the band Soylent Green?
Are you really a psychic detective?
Are you really a goofy-looking lawyer/judge-wannabe who makes his wife and kids dress in matching red shirts?